Hokies have it their way

The opening moments were filled with just about every problem Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer feared his team would have against Cincinnati.

It was merely a blip.

Nearly everything else went according to Beamer's plan - and the Hokies ended a yearlong Orange Bowl hangover.

Darren Evans had 28 carries for 153 yards and a touchdown, quarterback Tyrod Taylor rushed for another score and No. 21 Virginia Tech beat No. 12 Cincinnati 20-7 in the Orange Bowl on Thursday night, joining USC and Texas as the only schools to win 10 games in each of the past five seasons.

The Hokies (10-4) forced Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike into a season-high four interceptions. Pike - who wasn't even on Cincinnati's depth chart at the start of the season before blossoming into an all-Big East quarterback - threw for 239 yards and a touchdown, but had his night marred mightily by the picks and getting stopped on a 4th-and-goal in the fourth quarter.

Mardy Gilyard had 255 all-purpose yards (158 receiving , 97 returning) and a touchdown catch for Cincinnati, which saw its six-game winning streak snapped. The Bearcats (11-3) came in as slight favorites over the Hokies, who lost this game to Kansas a year ago.

"All year, all year, all year we've been the underdogs," said Hokies' cornerback Victor 'Macho' Harris - who didn't jump to the NFL last year, in part, because he didn't want to leave school with an Orange Bowl loss. "All year. We had to scratch and claw our way to a victory. We had to scratch our way up to a victory. It says a lot about the character on our team."

So this one was especially sweet for Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech players dump Gatorade on head coach Frank Beamer in the closing moments of their 20-7 win over Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl in Miami, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009.

Virginia Tech players dump Gatorade on head coach Frank Beamer in the closing moments of their 20-7 win over Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl in Miami, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009.

Photo: Lynne Sladky, AP

Photo: Lynne Sladky, AP

Image
1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

Virginia Tech players dump Gatorade on head coach Frank Beamer in the closing moments of their 20-7 win over Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl in Miami, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009.

Virginia Tech players dump Gatorade on head coach Frank Beamer in the closing moments of their 20-7 win over Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl in Miami, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2009.

Photo: Lynne Sladky, AP

Hokies have it their way

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Really, for the entire Atlantic Coast Conference, too.

The Hokies became the first ACC team to win a BCS game since Florida State - ironically- beat Virginia Tech, then a Big East member, for the national championship to close the 1999 season.

It was eight BCS chances, eight BCS losses for the ACC since.

And the oft-maligned league was just 5-12 over the past two seasons in all postseason games before the Hokies broke through, befuddling the Bearcats' spread offense with an array of different blitzes and, at times, simply winning the battle up front.

"We did a good job mixing it up," Beamer said. "Overall, I'm really proud of this football team. We hung in there."

Evans got the clinching score early in the fourth, after Pike threw his third interception - albeit on a highlight-quality play by Virginia Tech defensive end Orion Martin.

Deep in his own territory, Pike rolled right and threw back to the left, hoping the misdirection would pay off. Martin never bit, made a diving interception at the Cincinnati 10, and Evans rumbled in from 6 yards out for a 20-7 lead with 11:29 left.